


Taste the Rainbow

by always_addicted



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Fade to Black, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Sharing Clothes, feeling cold
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2014-11-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 05:30:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2569886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/always_addicted/pseuds/always_addicted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fitz can't find his sweater, so Mack does what any good friend would do and let's Fitz borrow his.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taste the Rainbow

**Author's Note:**

> I hadn't written anything in a while so I asked my bffs to give me prompts. They gave me: popcorn, shared hatred, perpetual coldness, google lies & found item. They also gave me "ass midgets" which says more about them than anything else I could ever tell you.

Mack grabbed the extra large bag of chocolate pretzels and the smaller bag of Skittles he’d procured and made his way into the lounge where everyone was getting ready to enjoy movie night. It had become a bi-weekly tradition since before Mack had joined the team. Apparently Tripp and Skye had come up with the idea to help bond everyone together after Ward had been arrested and Simmons had left. Secretly he thinks the real reason was to ensure Fitz continued to socialise with people who weren’t a figment of his imagination. 

Speaking of, looking around the many bodies strewn across the couches and bean bags in the room he noticed a lacking of a certain nerdy Scot. Kicking Lance’s legs, he motioned for him to get up. 

“Where’s Fitz?” he asked as Lance rolled his eyes and stood. It was an unspoken understanding that Mack got the loveseat to the side of the room – it was out the way so he didn’t block the view for others and was also large enough to accommodate his size while letting someone of a smaller stature share it with him. 

“How am I supposed to know?” Lance replied as he grabbed a spot on a beanbag next to Koenig. 

Just as he was about to get up and go ask Skye, the door to the lounge opened again and Fitz’s curly haired head popped round the edge. 

“Hey, Turbo!” Mack called as he patted the seat beside him. “Saved you a seat.” 

Fitz quickly made his way over to them, avoiding looking at everyone else. Mack wondered why at first as Fitz had been a lot more comfortable around them all recently. But then he heard a giggle come from the corner where Tripp, Bobbi and Simmons were all sat and suddenly understood. As Fitz sat down, Mack distracted him by handing him the bag of Skittles. 

“Got you a gift.”

Fitz took hold of the Skittles as if they were precious. “Thank you,” he said softly. 

Mack smiled at him. “You can have some of my pretzels if you want too.” 

“I’m not giving you any Skittles,” Fitz told him, his mouth quirking up into a half smile. 

“Oh I see, it’s like that is it?” Mack asked. “I get you candy cause hate popcorn and this is the thanks I get?” He grinned as a full smile broke out across Fitz’s face. 

“What kind of weirdo doesn’t like popcorn?” Lance suddenly called from his beanbag, bringing everyone’s attention to himself and the now blushing and scowling Fitz. 

“You calling me a weirdo?” Mack asked, surprising both Lance and everyone else. 

“You don’t like popcorn?” Skye asked in surprise. 

Mack shook his head, but before he could answer Fitz got there first. “The uh, the things…”

“The kernels,” Mack supplied.

“Yeah, the kernels get stuck in your teeth and then you have to sit through the film trying to pull them out with your tongue and you don’t want to get up to go to the toilet cause everyone else in the cinema will get annoyed when you have to walk past them and then when you get to the toilets you realise that you don’t actually carry any floss with you so you have to back into the film with the kernels still stuck there,” Fitz explained. “It’s annoying.” 

Silence settled over the room, everyone staring at Fitz before May of all people broke it. “Good,” she said as she sat down on a single arm chair in the corner, a bowl of popcorn on her lap. “More for me then.” 

After that everyone more or less settled down to watch the movie. This week had been Coulson’s pick and he’d chosen “See no Evil, Hear no Evil,” which explained a lot about the man’s sense of humour. 

The movie was about a third of the way through when Mack noticed that Fitz had stopped eating and instead had his arms wrapped around himself and with his shirt’s short sleeves and lack of tie (a mandatory rule set by Skye – no formal wear allowed to movie night. Koenig hated it) he looked as if he was freezing. 

Mack leaned over to whisper to him. “You cold?” Fitz looked up at him and nodded silently. “Where’s your sweater?” he asked as he wasn’t actually sure he’d seen Fitz’s naked arms before now. 

“Lost,” Fitz whispered back. “Never got it back with my laundry.” 

Mack didn’t say anything to that. He knew that it was getting increasingly difficult for Koenig to keep on top of whose laundry belonged to who as he’d already insisted that those unwilling to do their own laundry put their names on the label. Mack always did his own laundry but Fitz had admitted to never having learned how and that he had an irrational fear of messing it up and making himself look even more ridiculous to the others. Mack tried to reassure him it was easy, but Fitz had just waved him off and continued to use Koenig’s offered services. So, instead of making a fuss he simply sat up and pulled of his hoodie and silently handed it to Fitz. 

Looking down at where the orange lump of material sat in his lap, Fitz frowned before opening his mouth as if to argue but Mack shut him up first. 

“Gimme some Skittles and we’ll call it a fair trade,” he said. 

Fitz did that little half smile again, making Mack smile in return before he handed the half eaten bag of candy to Mack and wrapped himself up in the warm sweatshirt, not caring that it was about five sizes too big. 

When the movie finished and the lights came back on, everyone stood to start help clean up. Some of them looked in his and Fitz’s direction and gave them a funny look. It was then that Mack realised that Fitz had not only pulled his legs up so that they too were covered by Mack’s sweatshirt, but that he was sound asleep. 

“I don’t think he’s been sleeping much.”

Mack looked up to see Simmons standing next to him. “No, he doesn’t,” he agreed. “Says his room is cold.”

“Really? He’s never been bothered by cold before,” she said in surprise. “He said growing up in a country where there was only two weeks of summer made him all but impenetrable to coldness. It’s why all his shirts are short sleeved.”

Mack turned to look at the sleeping man. “Huh,” he said as a way of reply, which seemed to be enough of a noise to wake Fitz with a start. 

Arms flailing slightly, Fitz pushed himself to sit up, legs reappearing as he rubbed sleep from his eyes. “What’s… where’s… y’know?”

“Movie’s over, Leo,” Simmons said with a soft smile as she leaned over Mack. 

Fitz gave her a look that could only be described as ‘uncomfortably embarrassed and pissed about it’ before nodding and standing up. He quickly stood and made to start unzipping Mack’s sweatshirt. “Thanks, Mack for the uh, it helped, with um, with the uh, the warmth.” 

Mack stood up and reached for Fitz’s hands, stilling their movements. “It’s not a problem,” he told him, waiting for Fitz’s small nod and for him to let go of the zip before he continued. “Besides, I run hot anyways,” he added with a wink. 

A small laugh bubbled its way up out of Fitz’s mouth, causing both men to grin. 

“Keep it ‘til you find yours, okay?” 

Fitz nodded. “I’m just going to… the lab, I’ve got…”

“I remember,” Mack said, thinking back to that morning when Fitz told him all about his D.W.A.R.F drones and how he was trying to improve upon the design by making them smaller and easier to control so that they could be taken on missions by actual field agents allowing Leo to stay in the lab. “Don’t stay up all night.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Mack had a problem.

Well it wasn’t so much a problem as a huge distraction/obsession. 

Apparently, Fitz didn’t have any other sweaters that he could possibly have worn to help keep him warm apart from that one that was missing because for the past four days he had only worn Mack’s sweatshirt. That in itself wasn’t the problem as Mack had told him to.

The problem was that he liked it. 

Seeing Fitz wearing his sweatshirt with the faded but still easily discernible bull on the back made his breath catch. Every time he walked past the shop where Mack was working or when Mack went to visit him in the lab, he was wearing that damn sweatshirt and all Mack could think was that everyone would know who it belonged to, who Fitz belonged to. 

And there was the problem. Fitz didn’t belong to him. Not by a long shot. Yes they were friends and spent a lot of time together, but that’s as far as it went. And okay, sure Mack would be lying to himself if he’d said that the reason he had approached Fitz in the first place was because he thought he was cute and that his shyness was adorable. But now, he knew Fitz better, knew that he was getting over his heart break from Simmons’ leaving, getting used to functioning like a ‘normal’ person after his brain injury and Mack sometimes helped him with that. But none of that meant that Fitz was his and he had no right to get all possessive whenever someone approached him like he was right at this moment as he watched Tripp come down with a sandwich for him. 

“I heard it’s your favourite,” Tripp said. 

Fitz had stopped and stared at the sandwich before shaking his head. “I’m uh, not really a fan of prosciutto anymore. After the, um…”

“Oh. No biggie,” Tripp said, taking the sandwich back. 

Mack watched as the two stood in what looked like an uncomfortable silence. Normally he would go over and rescue Fitz, but the possessiveness in him was a little bit glad that Fitz didn’t really appear as warm to him as he did to Mack himself. Of course, then guilt quickly set in as it had done since these feelings started to occur. He should want Fitz to be friends with other people, it was good for him to relearn his social skills. From what Tripp had told him, he and Fitz had bonded pretty well before Ward had tried to kill him. 

Sighing to himself, he made his way over to the two and clapped a hand on Fitz’s shoulder. “You still cold, Turbo?” 

“Hmm?” Fitz asked as he leaned in to the touch. 

Mack tugged on the sweater in lieu of a reply. 

“Oh um, no. Yes. You can have it back, I just…”

“Breathe, Leo,” Mack said, rubbing the back of his neck to get him to calm. “I told you to keep it ‘til you found your own. I take it, it’s still missing?” 

Fitz nodded. “Yeah. And I just, my room is bloody freezing and I can’t get warm in there.”

“You know,” Tripp said, bringing both their attention back to him. “My room is exactly the same. I swear there’s like a secret room in the wall behind my bed. Keep feeling like a…”

“A cold draft,” Fitz said with a nod. “Yeah, there’s some old uh, what’s the word?” he asked, hitting Mack on the arm. 

“Passages?” 

“Yes, no. Tunnels. Escape tunnels,” he said triumphantly with a smile. “Keonig told me when I complained about the temperature.”

“Well I guess I need to go find me some duct tape and tape up those air holes,” Tripp said, turning and leaving the sandwhich. “Later.” 

“You want that?” Fitz asked him. “Simmons made it.” 

“She made it for you,” Mack said. 

“I don’t want it,” Fitz snapped. 

Mack held his hands up in surrender. Now wasn’t the time to get into another argument about Simmons. He’d already told Fitz to go easy on her and had gotten the cold shoulder from him for an afternoon. 

“If you don’t want it, then sure I’ll take it,” he said with a smile. “Thank you.” 

“Sorry,” Fitz said, rubbing at his temple. “I’m trying, she’s just… for a biochemist she seems awful unknowledgeable about the side effects of hypoxic brain injury. I mean, even if she didn’t know a simple google would suffice.” 

“Yeah well, we all know google lies,” Mack said with a smile. 

Fitz rolled his eyes. “You’ve been talking to Skye again.” 

“Maybe, but you know it’s true,” Mack grinned before lifting up the sandwich and beginning to walk away. “I’m making meatball surprise for dinner later, you in?” 

Fitz frowned at him. “Do I want to know what the surprise is?” 

“I’m taking that as a yes,” Mack yelled over his shoulder. “I’ll see you at nineteen hundred hours. Don’t be late.” 

And with that he managed to pull himself away from the lab and towards Koenig’s office. He needed to speak to the man about ordering in some space heaters for the rooms that were cold. Even though he was in absolutely no rush to get his sweatshirt back.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The next day Mack was sorting through his laundry when he found it. Fitz’s sweater. Why or how it had gotten mixed in with his things, he’d never know. He doesn’t remember putting it there but it wouldn’t be the first time he’d ended up with someone else’s clothing. Okay well, Tripp’s clothing as it was the only other clothing that would fit him, but he’d heard the others talking about their things getting mixed up too so he figured Koenig or someone had found it and had just dumped it in his room to avoid having to approach Fitz. Which actually, was kind of sad. So he hoped that wasn’t the case but he couldn’t think of any other reason.

Sighing to himself, he grabbed his laundry and decided to go get it done with before returning Fitz’s sweater to him later. 

When he got to the laundry room he was surprised to see Coulson there in sweats and a t-shirt. He could’ve sworn the guy only owned suits. 

“Hey, Mack,” he said with a smile. 

“Boss,” Mack nodded. “Didn’t take you for the type of guy to do his own laundry.”

“Well, normally I don’t have the time,” Coulson said with a shrug. 

“So you figured while you had the chance you’d do something normal?” 

“Yes,” Coulson nodded. “That and I’m hiding from Skye and Simmons.” 

Mack couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at that. “Should I even ask what they’re up to now?” 

“Something about reassigning rooms due to a heating problem. However Koenig assures me that all rooms are constantly maintained at optimum temperature.” 

“Well I could think of a couple of people who’d disagree.”

“If you mean Fitz, he’s been more prone to the cold since his brain injury. The hypothalamus is located below the temporal lobe. It controls temperature amongst other things. His core temperature is actually within normal limits so it’s not really a health concern. He just feels cold more often than not,” Coulson explained. 

“So he’s not really cold, just thinks he is?” 

Coulson nodded as he picked up his folded laundry. “I don’t have enough money to buy heaters for all the rooms, but I’m sure I can splash out for an extra comforter or two.” 

Mack gave him a nod, not entirely sure why Coulson was telling him this and not Fitz. Perhaps it was because he’d complained rather thoroughly to Koenig the day before. Still, maybe later when he took Fitz’s sweater back to him he’d take some more of his warmer items of clothing. Fitz needed them more than him. 

By the time he’d actually done his laundry, finished his workout, checked on the workshop and grabbed two more of his sweatshirts – one from his days in the CIA and was actually too small for him now, and one he’d bought for running in when he’d been living in New York – and some of his thicker flannel shirts it was well into the afternoon. He hadn’t seen Fitz all day and if he went by his usual schedule, he’d still be in the lab. So he figured he’d take the clothes, dump them in Fitz’s room and that way Fitz wouldn’t be able to make a fuss. 

However, Fitz wasn’t in the lab. He was in fact, in his room. Or to be more exact, as Mack let himself in to the room, Fitz was walking out of the adjoining shower room completely and utter naked save for Mack’s sweatshirt. His hair was wet and he had a high flush on his cheeks indicating he had just showered but Mack couldn’t really register that properly because Fitz was just standing there staring at him. And _everything_ was on view.

“Um…” Mack said jump-starting Fitz out of his shocked stare to pull the sweatshirt closed over his crotch. “I found your sweater,” he said indicating the pile in his arms. “And I brought you some more.” 

Fitz just nodded, apparently unable to speak properly at that moment. 

“Should I just…” Mack closed the door and made his way towards the bed to unload his burden. He did his best to avoid looking at Fitz so was actually very surprised when he turned to see Fitz standing behind him, looking at Mack contemplatively. 

“My brain injury. I’m always going to have some… issues expressing myself,” Fitz said, looking for the first time since Mack met him completely at ease and absolutely sure of himself. Mack, not trusting himself to speak for once just nodded in understanding. “So I thought… actions. Actions are better than words.” 

Mack watched in stunned silence as Fitz shrugged off the sweatshirt, slowly revealing his lithe and surprisingly toned body. Then Fitz was throwing the sweatshirt on top of the pile of clothes on the bed and moving closer to Mack. Unable to stop himself, Mack reached out and settled his hands on Fitz’s slim hips. 

“Leo…”

Fitz reached up and put his hand over Mack’s mouth. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I know I’ve not said before. But I… I’m very, I… you’re attractive,” he said then cringed at himself. “I’m attracted to you and I know to most I’m just a weirdo recluse with no social skills, but I’m not. I know when the feeling’s mutual and well…” he cut himself off and looked down. Mack followed his gaze and smiled against Fitz’s hand as he saw just how attractive Fitz found him. 

Reaching up, he pulled Fitz’s hand away from his mouth and down towards his groin, smiling to himself as Fitz’s breath hitched. “You’re right, the feeling is very mutual,” he said, leaning forward. “I’m gonna kiss you now.” 

“Okay,” Fitz nodded. “Okay, yeah you… you uh. Do tha…” Mack cut him off as he pressed their lips together in a soft kiss. 

As he pulled back, Fitz looked up at him and smiled sweetly as he reached up with both hands to rest on Mack’s shoulders. Meanwhile Mack let his own hand wrap around Fitz’s back and pulled him close to himself, not leaving an inch of air between them as they began to kiss again this time deeper and firmer and leaving no doubt that this was something they both desperately wanted. 

“Fitz have you seen MACK?! OH MY GOD!!!”

Both men jumped apart to see Skye standing in the open doorway gawping at the two of them. Fitz tried to pull away and cover himself as Mack tried to hold him in place to prevent him from flashing her more than he already was, turning them around instead. 

“Mack was just uh...” Fitz began calling over Mack’s shoulder as he grabbed the sweatshirt he’d just taken off and attempted to scramble back into it. 

“Fitz was cold,” Mack interrupted, outwardly cringing at how corny that sounded. 

“Uh huh, and let me guess,” Skye said. “You’re just helping to warm him up?” she asked with a ridiculous eye waggle. 

“No I was…”

“Yes,” Fitz said as he re-emerged from behind Mack, simply holding the sweatshirt in front of him. “That’s exactly what he was doing. And you can see, I’m very, very cold.” 

“Don’t worry, Romeo. I’ll go and let Mack heat you up real good.” 

“Thank you!” Fitz said rather aggressively. 

“Mack, when you’re done May needs you to take a look at her bike,” Skye told him before retreating from the room with a wink. 

“Oh God!” Fitz said. “Everyone will know. Simmons she’ll… ugh, she’ll be all proud.” 

Mack smiled and pulled Fitz towards him once more. “She’ll be happy for you. As will everyone else,” he said before sitting down on the bed and pulling Fitz onto his lap. “Now I do believe things are about to get hot in here.”

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr can be found [here](http://always-addicted.tumblr.com/) :D


End file.
